


all good things must come to an end

by willowbranches



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Angst, Defeat, F/M, Final Battle, Gen, I Write Tragedies Not Sins, Sad Fluff, i guess, lots of death, rated M for violence/gore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-04
Updated: 2019-06-04
Packaged: 2019-12-25 17:20:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18265913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/willowbranches/pseuds/willowbranches
Summary: The aftermath of the heroes' final battle.





	all good things must come to an end

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Together](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15122354) by [TOG84](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TOG84/pseuds/TOG84). 



> :3

~~~~Marinette's eyes fluttered open. Her whole body hurt. She sat up, her head dizzy with pain.

She touched her earlobes. Her earrings had been torn away, leaving bloody cuts behind.

_Tikki…_

* * *

_Ladybug could only watch as the first akuma struck Carapace on the head with the blunt side of its sword. He crumpled to the ground in a heap._

Nino…

_He was dead, and it was all her fault._

…No. _It was Hawk Moth's fault. And she was going to make him pay._

* * *

 

Marinette stared down at her body. Her clothes were ripped beyond repair, and she was sure her hair was a complete mess. She had lost a shoe, somehow.

But that wasn't what held her attention.

* * *

 

_Rena screamed in anguish._

"No!"

_She launched herself at the akuma in a rage, bringing her flute down on it with more vigor than ever before. Creating impossibly endless illusions, she fought the monstrous supervillain furiously._

_But it wasn't enough._

_The akuma hit Rena on the head in almost exactly the same way as it had struck down Carapace, and she fell to the ground beside him._

_She grabbed his cold, lifeless hand desperately and closed her eyes forever._

* * *

 

She stared at the large red hole in her stomach. At the blood encrusted around the tear in her shirt. Her eyes widened in pain and fear.

_I'm not ready to die…_

And she wouldn't. Not quite yet. Her luck would hold on for just a little while more.

* * *

 

_Ladybug let out a strangled scream as Rena fell._

Alya…

_Her best friend. Dead._

_How many more people was she going to lose to Hawk Moth today? How many more people? How many?!_

_It took most of her willpower to not just up and kill the akuma for what it had done._

Focus, Marinette! _Tikki's voice echoed though her head._

_Yes. She could do this. She just had to find and purify the butterflies. But how?_

_Her gaze alighted on her friends' bodies and the akumas' glinting swords._

_And suddenly, she knew what she had to do._

* * *

 

Marinette looked around at her surroundings. Paris was in flames. Buildings were crumbling everywhere.

Rena and Carapace were lying lifelessly on the ground a few meters away.

She crawled painfully towards their bodies. Miraculously, they still hadn't detransformed. Nino's hood had fallen off, partially revealing the bloody gash on the back of his head.

Tears welled up in her eyes as she took each one by the hand and held them to her heart, as if she could bring them back to life that way.

A fresh wave of sorrow crashed down on her as she noticed Carapace's left hand clutched tightly in Rena's right. She choked out a bitter laugh that turned to sobs just as quickly. She supposed their love was so strong that not even Death itself could separate them.

She stood up shakily.

And over there…

"Chl—" The name caught in her throat as she saw Queen Bee's detransformed body lying at the foot of a nearby building. She nearly laughed at the irony of it all; the last person she'd expected to mourn was Chloe Bourgeois. Yet there she was, standing over the mayor's daughter with no memory of how she got there. A cry escaped her lips.

_Chloe…_

* * *

 

 _Queen Bee snarled at the akuma that had killed Carapace and Rena. She didn't care who was under the mask._ Nobody _harmed her friends without answering to her._

_She threw her spinning top at the akuma as she spat, "Venom!"_

_The glowing yellow top hit the akuma in the head, right where she'd wanted it to go. But the akuma didn't get paralyzed like it was supposed to._

_Instead, it swatted the weapon—that was much like Ladybug's own—away from its face and advanced on Chloe._

Why didn't my power work? It was supposed to work! Why didn't it? Why?!

_That was the last thing she thought before the akuma grabbed her by the top's string and swung her into the side of a building._

* * *

Marinette forced herself to look away from Chloe. But in doing so, she forced herself to look at Adrien.

_Chat._

Her other half. Her _partner._ The only person who would have made it possible to live without the rest of her friends.

And he was gone, too.

* * *

 

_Ladybug finally understood what she had to do._

_Because she knew the true secret of the miraculous._

_In order for one to work right, it had to have been given freely. Otherwise, everything would go wrong and the miraculous would become corrupted. Like Hawk Moth's._

_And she would sure as hell give hers freely._

* * *

 

Marinette somehow had enough energy to stumble over to where Adrien was lying in the dust. She knelt gracefully (read: collapsed gracelessly) by his side. He'd been stabbed too, she noticed with a hysterical gasp of a laugh.

"Adrien…"

As if saying his name would bring him back. Because he was dead.

Or so she thought.

* * *

 

_She had realized that there was no point fighting anymore. They'd take Tikki no matter what happened. They'd already killed most of her friends._

_She just couldn't let them kill Chat._

_So she dodged a lethal blow and ran towards him.  
_

_She could only hope that Hawk Moth's wish would keep Chat alive. That her sacrifice would restore the balance enough so that he would have a chance to live._

_Almost there._

_The akuma lifted the blade above its head, Chat standing frozen at its feet._

_Ladybug used the last of her strength to jump in front of Chat._

_"Milady, no—!" His arm reached out for her uselessly._

_The sword swung down._

_But her sacrifice was all for naught._

* * *

 

Adrien's beautiful, vivid green eyes opened. "Milady?"

Marinette nearly laughed in relief. "Yes, kitty. It's me." She clasped his bloodied, ringless hand to her cheek.

"Mari…" He couldn't get the words out. It hurt too much.

But she knew exactly what he meant. "I know, minou, I know."

He relaxed, but only slightly. "Princess…" He coughed, and blood dribbled out of his mouth.

Tears pricked behind her eyes. "What, chaton?"

He smiled sadly. "…I love you."

Then he closed his eyes and sighed his last.

He was truly gone this time.

* * *

 

_Chat was the last to fall._

_The giant akuma kicked Ladybug's body to the side, where it landed with a thud. Chat had no idea if his lady was still alive or not. He didn't know how much damage the suits protected them from. Obviously, they weren't invincible. He'd witnessed the deaths of three of his best friends, who had been wearing magic suits of their own._

_And Ladybug…_

_Chat slumped to the ground in defeat. There was no point fighting anymore. His lady was as good as dead. Nearly everyone he'd loved had been killed. It wasn't worth it anymore._

I'm sorry, Plagg. _He could sense the kwami's sorrow in the deepest parts of his heart. Tears filled his wheatgrass-colored eyes._

_Then the akuma stepped forward and mercilessly stabbed Chat in the stomach, claiming victory for Hawk Moth._

* * *

 

"No…"

Marinette turned away and retched. _It's time,_ she thought. Knew.

But that was okay. The sooner she could be with her kitty and her friends, the better.

So she laid down beside Adrien, still holding his hand.

She coughed once more and lay still, never to move again.

**Author's Note:**

> ⭐ bumping the publication date up so i can ask: should i write a second chapter? i have some half-baked ideas (please excuse the pun) but i'm not really sure if i should actually write more, or if this is good as-is. comment or shoot me an ask or something on tumblr if you have any ideas! ⭐
> 
> sorry not sorry :D
> 
> also! i owe a huge thank you to [TOG84](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TOG84) for writing [Together](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15122354), which in turn inspired me to write this. <3
> 
> two things i'd like to clarify:  
> 1\. no, i don't know who these akumas are. they're not important. screw them. what a bunch of losers lol (except they won, so…)  
> 2\. if you're a little confused about why ladybug sacrificed herself, it's because her only hope was that hawk moth's wish would bring chat back to life. Like, if chat died, hawk moth would get both their miraculous and then his wish could restore everything back to the way it was before this story. anyway, does that make sense? sorry, some things just click in my head and they're kinda hard to explain lol.
> 
> if you want to scream at me about this, my [tumblr](https://xthreeravensx.tumblr.com) [ask box is open](https://xthreeravensx.tumblr.com/ask). ~~or you could, like, dm me or somethin' (please i want friends)~~
> 
> drop a kudos if you cried! (or if you liked it. that's good too.) :3
> 
> xoxo Ravens


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